“Kids in kindergarten living across the street from a sex offender is not what the people voted for in Jessica’s Law.”

So says a state legislator who is clearly dismayed by an abrupt turn in established state policy that has removed living restrictions on thousands of paroled sex offenders across California.

As noted in a lengthy article discussing a revised housing policy for offenders convicted of sexual crimes against children, Jessica’s Law was “a blanket housing ban imposed by California voters nine years ago.” The law provided that no paroled sex offender could live within 2,000 feet of any locale — such as, centrally, schools and parks — where children congregate.

Much would-be legislation is highly controversial and heavily debated, with competing camps vying for polar-opposite results.

Such was clearly not the case with Jessica’s Law, which California voters heavily endorsed when the restrictive housing policy issue was placed before them. In fact, about 70 percent of state voters approved the restriction.

It is that singularly widespread approval of the electorate that now angers and perplexes many critics of the recent policy change.

And their angst seems well placed, given data culled from the state corrections department by an investigative team from the Associated Press. As noted in the above-cited article, that data “shows that 76 percent of offenders [previously under Jessica Law’s blanket housing ban] are no longer subject to the voter-approved restrictions.”

And that has a number of people in California feeling that what voters have soundly endorsed regarding an important matter is being disregarded.

We will have more to say about the recent policy adjustment in our next blog post.